Delta ending all flights between Mobile and Memphis

In this 2001 file photo, a Delta Air Lines Boeing 727-200 is readied for takeoff at the Mobile Regional Airport in Mobile, Alabama. Delta is ending flights between Mobile and Memphis on Jan. 3. (Press-Register/G.M. Andrews)

Earlier this year, Atlanta-based Delta cut the number of Mobile-Memphis round trips from three to two. At the time, the airline said more reductions could be coming in Memphis, a hub that it inherited when it merged with Northwest Airlines. More and more of that traffic is being funneled through Delta's much larger hub in Atlanta.

"While it's obviously disappointing to lose the Memphis non-stop service, thanks to added capacity from Mobile to Atlanta, Delta's total capacity will only be down 2 percent in January 2012 versus January 2011," said Bill Sisson, executive director of the Mobile Airport Authority.

Delta is also cutting service Jan. 3 from Memphis to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, Panama City, Fla., and four other cities, The Commercial Appeal newspaper of Memphis reported. Service to Montgomery and Fort Walton Beach, Fla., were cut earlier. The newspaper said that the total number of daily departures from Memphis would fall from 164 to 149, and the number of cities served by the gateway would fall from 65 to 58.

"We hate to see Memphis pulled from the route map," said Jeremiah Gerald, director of air service development for the Gulfport airport. "It hurts."

Sisson said that over the past year, more than 80 percent of seats were filled between Mobile and Memphis. But most passengers are changing planes to go somewhere else. On average, only 9 passengers from Mobile end their trip each day in Memphis, Sisson said.

"It's about consolidating that traffic," Gerald said.

Delta is trying to reduce the number of trips it flies on 50-seat regional jets, spokesman Trebor Banstetter wrote in an email. Those planes are "our least fuel-efficient aircraft," Banstetter wrote. They also have been the backbone of service to many Gulf Coast airports over the last decade, connecting the cities to larger hubs.

"We will continue to serve Mobile and Gulfport/Biloxi with daily nonstop service to our hub in Atlanta, which offers convenient connecting service to more than 200 destinations worldwide," Banstetter wrote. "Both cities continue to be valued markets for Delta, and we'll continue to work to provide the best possible service for our customers."

Right now, Delta is flying seven daily round trips to Atlanta from Mobile, including two on 125-seat DC-9s. That's part of a trend to fly fewer, larger planes in an effort to save fuel. Delta's fuel bill is $3 billion higher this year than last year, Banstetter wrote. Analysts have said fuel prices are threatening to surpass workers as an airline's highest cost.

US Airways is adding a fourth daily round trip from Gulfport to Charlotte, N.C., next week. It did the same for Mobile in the spring.